"
"Perhaps you have a son among the soldiers," said his companion, with a
milder demeanor, and an air of kindness; "if so, tell me his name and
regiment, and I will take you to him."
The old man shook his head, and, passing his hand over his silver locks,
with an air of meek resignation, he answered,--
"No; I am alone in the world!"
"You should have added, Captain Dunwoodie," cried his careless comrade,
"if you could find either; for nearly half our army has marched down the
road, and may be, by this time, under the walls of Fort George, for
anything that we know to the contrary."
The old man stopped suddenly, and looked earnestly from one of his
companions to the other; the action being observed by the soldiers, they
paused also.
"Did I hear right?" the stranger uttered, raising his hand to screen
his eyes from the rays of the setting sun. "What did he call you?" "My
name is Wharton Dunwoodie," replied the youth, smiling. The stranger
motioned silently for him to remove his hat, which the youth did
accordingly, and his fair hair blew aside like curls of silk, and opened
the whole of his ingenuous countenance to the inspection of the other.
"'Tis like our native land!" exclaimed the old man with vehemence,
"improving with time; God has blessed both.
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